Trade has always been a life-and-death junction for Southeast Asia. The geographical conditions under the wind are superior, and it is located in the maritime trade center between the Ming Dynasty, India, the Middle East and Europe. Whenever the tide of international trade is surging, the region becomes the darling of international trade. In front of it, Arab merchants came here to trade (and spread ****), and then European merchants flocked to East India. A large number of lilac, nutmeg, pepper, sandalwood, soma, camphor, shellac and other commodities were continuously imported into the international market, creating one trade myth after another.

If the East Indies are regarded as the core area, then Taiwan Island is a thicker tentacle extended by the Dutch East Indies Company. This island occupied by the Netherlands in 1624 developed dramatically due to the war in mainland China. The intermittent trade in raw silk, porcelain and tea made the Dutch pay more attention to exploring the value of Taiwan Island itself. They rely on Taiwan's still fertile land to vigorously develop the rice and sugar industry, and at the same time purchased deer skin and exported it to Japan, effectively maintaining the company's trade in nearby areas and accumulating a lot of profits and sending it back to Batavia.

However, today when Zheng Chenggong is in great maritime power, it is actually difficult for the Dutch to buy goods from mainland China - only a little bit of raw silk, green tea and porcelain every year - if the East Coast people had not even out some Ningbo raw silk and tea for them as agreed every year, then the life of the Dutch East India Company's Taiwan Business Station would be difficult.

Of course, without East Coast people, the Dutch are also actively saving themselves. Sometimes they buy a lot of Tokyo raw silk (i.e. raw silk produced in Hanoi), Persian raw silk, and Siamese deer-skin fish mesh and sold it to Japan in a mixed manner to maintain trade. But this is not the right way. The Dutch still has a considerable demand for raw silk, tea and even sugar from mainland China (only in years with low sucrose production in Taiwan), but they can never find sufficient supply. Therefore, for the above reasons, Shao Shuguang's previous concern about the Dutch refusal to open a commercial station in the East Coast Port. The Dutch East India Company, whose business has declined, did not refuse the request of the East Coast people under actual pressure.

Today is December 8th. Han Yin, who had just recovered from a disease, is currently running on the construction site of the commercial bank. The commercial bank covers an area of ​​about one and a half acres, and the cost is only a little tea and raw silk. What is even more amazing is that the Dutch actually promised to recruit locals to build a "compliant" commercial station for the East Coast people, on the condition that they bought a large amount of backlog of sugar in their hands. After a while of discussion, Han Yin and others also agreed to this condition. Anyway, sugar cane is sold in Ningbo, Dengzhou, North Korea and Hei Shui. Han Yin, who has been doing family business for many years, does not believe that with such a huge market, they should be worried that they are not able to eat these backlogs of Taiwanese sugar. What they should be worried about is that they have insufficient funds at hand, which may require the Dutch to agree to temporarily credit.

Things went so smoothly that Han Yin and others could not believe their good luck. They chatted for a while in their spare time, and finally agreed that the Dutch business in Japan had encountered great challenges, especially when an employee from southern Zhejiang pointed out that the Zheng family had been doing well in overseas trade in recent years (annual profit of more than 2.5 million taels) and almost monopolized most of Japan's trade, everyone had already understood the dilemma of the Dutch in Taiwan.

All this is actually the "destroy" of the East Coast people! Because the East Coast continues to intervene in the mainland situation, the situation in China has undergone tremendous changes compared to history. Most of Fujian, southern Jiangxi, and Guangdong and Guangxi are all in the hands of the Southern Ming Dynasty. In addition, the Lu regime supported by Zheng Cai and others have been tug-of-war with the Qing army in eastern Zhejiang, so most of the porcelain, raw silk and tea resources in southern China are concentrated in the hands of Zheng, and the Dutch cannot get any goods at all. What is not the same is that due to the frequent activities of the East Coast Navy in eastern Zhejiang, the Yangtze River Estuary, and the Jiangbei area, the Qing court is very difficult to trade with the Netherlands. This basically means that it has grabbed the neck of the Dutch, leaving them in a state of not being full over the years.

Faced with such a dilemma, the Dutch could only adjust the commodity structure sent to Japan, such as using Taiwan sugar as a fist commodity, raw silk and deer skin as a supplement. But the problem is that Fujian and Guangdong also produce sugar, and the scale is not small, so the Dutch had to compete with Zheng's Japanese sugar market with the Zheng family. Especially in Guangdong, the area is not as frequent wars in history, but has been stable for many years. Sugar production has hit a new high. Zheng's shipment is also shipped in large quantities, which greatly hits the Dutch's trade. It is really tragic. For example, in 1658, Taiwan's sugar production was 17,500 dan, but only 6,000 dan was successfully sold to Japan. If the remaining sugar East India Company does not want to be transported back to Europe for sale as a ballast (because its traditional Persian sugar market has been "captured" by the East Coast people), it is best to find a market nearby to sell it, so that funds can be quickly recovered and continued to trade in the next trade.

The East Coast people came to the door at such a time, which did have a little bit of helping the Dutch. After all, Governor Kuiyi is not a fool. He knew that the East Coast people had a large supply of goods and had enough consumer markets, which played a crucial role in revitalizing the economy of Taiwan's commercial stations. Perhaps some gentlemen in the Seventeen-member Committee of Batavi were very angry with the East Coast people and blamed their new China Colony for pouring into the Safavi Kingdom of Persia (this is a market with a shipment volume comparable to that of Japan for the Dutch). In addition, the East Coast people obstructed their trade with the Qing Dynasty, so they had no good face to them. But the gentlemen considered that as the Governor of Taiwan and the actual person in charge of the commercial station, Kuiyi was naturally responsible for the operating conditions of the Taiwan commercial stations. After all, this was very related to his personal income, and no one would be unable to get along with money.

Besides, the Seventeen-member Committee also advocated easing relations with the East Coast people. They believed that Ningbo Prefecture under the East Coast ruled had stable raw silk and tea production. So at a time when the Zheng family was very competitive, they strengthened cooperation with the East Coast people and imported raw silk, tea, and high-end fur from them - especially tea that is increasingly popular in Europe, which is originally a "golden partner" with sugar - exporting spices, sandalwood, camphor, sugar and rice is undoubtedly an excellent bilateral trade model. Unfortunately, many gentlemen in the Seventeen-member Committee were blinded by the arrogance they had developed for a long time and could not see this trade route with gold flowing. Then, it is time for Yukiichi to break this layer of ice.

In such a context, it is conceivable that as long as the requirements of Han Yin and others are not too excessive, Governor Kuiyi will naturally be satisfied. So you see that the construction land of the Taiwan Bank was sold and there were free construction, as if they were afraid that the East Coast people would not come to trade, which surprised Han Yin and others at first. However, at this time they only reached some rough intentions with the Dutch (for example, they initially negotiated with the Dutch that the price of sugar was 90-100 yuan per ton on the East Coast, which was cheaper than the European market, but this is not counted. We have to wait for Shao Shuguang and others to discuss in detail). The details of the trade will be finalized until mid-to-late January next year.

More than a month passed quickly. On January 10, 1660, Shao Shuguang arrived at the Dayuan Port by boat with seven or eight Taiwanese bank employees and more than ten guards recruited in Ningbo. It is worth mentioning that this time, Commander Chang Kaisheng specially approved the Blackwater Task Force flagship "Cadis Rock" to carry them to the sea outside the castle of Jelanzha. At that time, the warship with more than 40 artillery drove to the nearshore majestic, which once caused a commotion among the Dutch people. It was really cool, but invisibly, it also endorsed the Taiwanese bank headed by Shao Shuguang. The benefits cannot be underestimated.

After arriving at the Port of Dayuan, Shao Shuguang first went to a private banquet for Governor Kuiyi, met the top figures of the Dutch East India Company in Taiwan, and then moved into the Taiwan Bank that had just been built. He discussed matters with more than a dozen Ningbo merchants who went south with him all day long. These people were introduced by Huang Yi, most of them were pro-East-shore gentry in the county's stability maintenance meetings. This time, following Shao Shuguang to Taiwan to make trouble, and of course, there was also a lot of profit-driven drive.

"Although we are not as vulgar as Dutch red hair, we can also add sugar when drinking tea, but to be honest, there are many places where the market and wealthy households use sugar. Sun Zhengxing, you Sun Chunyang South Goods Store are used to selling sweet cakes and candied fruits. Tell me how the sales are?" Shao Shuguang asked by name while drinking the coffee from Xinhuaxia Far Road.

"Master General Officer." When Sun Zhengxing heard Shao Shuguang call him, he immediately stood up and bowed: "In the past, in our pickling room, we had to buy dozens of kilograms of sugar every day to cook all kinds of food, which is not a small amount in a year. In recent years, wars have been endless. The southern Fujian sugar and Guangdong sugar transport ships (mostly owned by the Zheng family) have been intermittent, causing the price of sugar to rise. We are really miserable. If the General Officer today can say that the Red Hair General Officer is sold to Ningbo Prefecture - well, Taiwan sugar to Taiwan, I dare not say anything else. I will pay 10,000 kilograms of deposit in the south of the Sun Chunyang South Goods Store."

After Sun Zhengxing spoke on behalf of the retail "giant" such as Sun Chunyang's South Goods Store, other merchants also said that as long as the price is right, they can eat a quantity ranging from 3,000 to 10,000 kilograms. After all, Ningbo Prefecture has been in Chengping for ten years, with a population of more than 800,000, private business is gradually developing, and the people in the country are still quite rich. In addition, trade with North Korea, Denglai, Hei Shui and even Japan is flying, and a large amount of precious metals flow into Ningbo. The people still have a lot of purchasing power, and it should be no problem to consume some Taiwanese sugar.

Of course, if you look at Heishui, North Korea, and Dengzhou, a market with millions of people, then this business can be done, and the profits in it are simply unimaginable. It is not impossible to eat half of Taiwan’s sugar production in a year at some point in the future.

After talking about sugar, Shao Shuguang talked to everyone about food trade. There is no way, the Taiwan Bank has too little money to start, and the existing funds of these merchants must be fully utilized, otherwise many of the work will not be carried out. As we all know, the East Coast people are now surging a large number of immigrants, and the food problem has begun to become an indelible shadow in the hearts of the bureaucrats of the Blackwater Development Team. Therefore, it is natural to reach an agreement with the Dutch and import a large amount of Southeast Asian rice.

The merchants here have been dealing with the East Coast people for a long time, and they know this well and understand it in their hearts. They know that this is a long-lasting good business, so they patted their chests and said that they would take out part of the funds to purchase rice from the Taiwanese bank. Well, even if they transfer the purchase money first, it would be fine. Anyway, many fields in Ningbo Prefecture have been converted into sericulture, and the food is not so sufficient, so they don’t have to worry about not being able to sell it.

Of course, Shao Shuguang also deeply understood that although the trade in sugar and rice was also very important in the eyes of the Dutch, it was far less than the raw silk that they had coveted for a long time. Tea trade - tea has a market in Europe and has increased exponentially in recent years; raw silk is related to the overall profitable Japanese trade situation, and it is even more negligible. Therefore, he was also mentally prepared to increase the tea quota several times higher than the raw silk exported to the Netherlands - this is not a big problem, because in recent years, the tea production of raw silk in Ningbo Prefecture has also increased a lot - to satisfy the increasing appetite of the Dutch.

On January 25, just when the construction of the Taiwan Bank headquarters of the Dayuangang Port was about to reach half, the first trade between the East Coast people and the Dutch people was almost over. Taiwan Bank\/The bank of Taiwan purchased 85 tons of sugar from the Dutch with the opening money, customer deposits, and merchants in advance. (In 1645, Taiwan's sugar production was the highest, at 150,000 dan, about 7,500 tons, which is now much worse than before, and its market share has shrunk greatly), 200 tons of rice and a considerable amount of spices, camphor, sandalwood and other precious commodities almost spent all their money.

However, if you think that the East Coast is a trade deficit in the trade with the Dutch, you would be very wrong. Not to mention, the large amount of raw silk, tea and some high-end fur they brought with them with the ship - due to the monopoly of the trade rights of the Taiwan Bank, these goods must also be handed over by the bank - were sold at a large price, not only redeeming all purchase payments, but also having a large surplus. It makes people sigh that the cross-border raw silk trade is indeed huge profits, even in the Far East.

In such a situation, if the Dutch wanted to balance trade, in addition to exporting a large amount of precious metals, they could only export a large amount of rice according to the requirements of the East Coast people. How to choose? In fact, it is clear at a glance. The Dutch who are used to doing business will naturally not understand it.
Chapter completed!